ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 8, 1996 TAG: 9608080022
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: OUTDOORS
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
Sixty-acre Douthat State Park Lake is Virginia's most popular trout pay-fishing area. Until hot weather hits.
Then the high water temperatures and low oxygen content compress the trout into a sliver of habitat where they attempt to hang on until fall.
On Monday, officials of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries determined that Douthat currently has a one-foot band of cold-water habitat suitable for trout at a 14-foot depth. Elsewhere is a wasteland, as far as trout are concerned.
When trout are stocked - and the pay program calls for frequent stockings - they either find that 12-inch band quickly, move up Wilson Creek (a tributary of the lake), or perish, said Larry Mohn, a state fish biologist.
``When they congregate up Wilson Creek, there are problems with snagging,'' said Mohn.
The department discontinued trout stocking in Douthat and dropped the $4 daily trout fishing fee when trout mortality began to occur in the lake in early July.
The waiver of the fee was a good deal for families who frequently camp along the impoundment and desire to fish for warm-water species. That meant they could fish for bass, chain pickerel and sunfish without paying a speical fee. If the family has three fishermen, it would amount to a $12 daily savings.
But some of Douthat's trout fishing regulars, those who have the skills to probe deep with lightweight line and zero in on the narrow band of trout water, didn't like the idea of eliminating stockings, Mohn said.
``They said they still could catch trout,'' he said. ``When we asked them, `at what depth', they said,`14 feet.'''
The unfavorable conditions for trout during the summertime have been a reoccurring problem at Douthat, said Mohn. So much so that biologists plans to propose new regulations for the lake during a meeting of the department's board in Richmond on Aug.22.
The proposals won't be made public until the meeting, but Mohn said they could bring changes to the fee program. If they get the go-ahead in Richmond, they will be the subject of a public hearing in the Douthat area in September, he said.
Poor trout fishing also has occurred at Moomaw Lake, which is just across the ridge from Douthat. The 1996 season showed promise there in late March, when trout began taking minnows in deep water, then it stalled.
Mohn isn't certain why the fishing is poor, but the reason could be opposite of what is happening at Douthat, he said. Cool weather and rain at 2,530-acre Moomaw could have the trout scattered, rather than concentrated in the cold-water bands where fishermen often find them in July and August.
Fish officials had predicted that the number of 2- to 3-pound brown trout in the lake would be numerous this year. So far, it hasn't happened.
Nor has the bass fishing been that productive. Some anglers wonder if Mooman's trophy smallmouth fishing is being hurt by the heavy predation of big bass by anglers during the spawning season. In the spring, large numbers of bass, some weighing 5 to 6 pounds, congregate in the Jackson River, a tributary of Moomaw. Fishermen catch and carry them home in excessive numbers.
Mohn said biologists should better be able to determine if this is detrimental to the bass population following a study that is underway. The question to be resolved: Are these bass attracted to the river from widespread areas of the lake, or are they river fish?
If they are lake fish coming from a distance, that would be highly unusual, and could be harmful to Moomaw's potential of producing trophy bass, he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 69 linesby CNB